poland PKP steam train

On a grey February day PKP 2-6-2 Ol49-23 brews up in Zbaszynek station while waiting to depart on the 16.05 train to Leszno. This station is on the electrified Berlin to Warsaw main line and the cross-country line to Wolsztyn & Leszno branches off south from the junction at Zbaszyn 6km to the east.
 Following the First World War the western border of the newly independent Poland was between Neu Bentschen (Zbąszyńek) and Zbąszyń (formerly Bentschen) and so this station became the German border station, hence its size. Post-1945 with the border pushed back to the river Oder both became part of modern Poland.